The present invention relates to a novel pressure testing apparatus for one or more fire hoses.
Fire hoses used on fire engines must constantly be tested to obviate breakage while fighting an actual fire. A broken fire hose is not only a very dangerous occurrence for the fire fighting personnel, but, often, seriously hampers efforts in extinguishing a fire.
Prior methods of testing fire hoses have included the usage of a pumper truck, which is an important piece of fire equipment. Unfortunately such constant testing of the fire hoses often places excessive wear on a pumper truck resulting in break down of the same. In addition, a pumper truck being employed for testing hoses is not readily available for fighting fires at or about the same time.
Simply connecting a fire hose to a fire hydrant does not create enough pressure to provide a true test of a fire hose. Auxiliary pumps have been employed in this regard but require isolation of the source of water and the pump to test the fire hose. Any leakage of water or volumetric increase of the fire hose requires reconnection of the source of water to the auxiliary pump and then further isolation of the same. Such apparatuses are, evidently, time consuming and labor intensive.
A pressure testing apparatus which automatically maintains constant pressure in a fire hose with a single connection to a source of water would be a notable advance in the fire fighting equipment field.